WELCOME EVERYONE! This is my latest and best PG&C Thread!

I'm Pete and I'm from the Midlands. I have been playing poker continuously since I graduated from uni back in (the day) 2011.

Last year I had a great and very eventful year and my hope is that in 2016 I will be able to write about an even more exciting and profitable year! I like to think of myself as a good professional however during the last year I found myself in "holiday mode" a bit too often. A bit too often to truly be as professional as I would like to think I am, or indeed tell others! That being said, Last year I worked extremely hard and invested a lot into improving my game.

Looking at my 2015 goals:

Make good money [x]
Greatly improve my game [x]
Gym 4 times a week [?]
Keep my driving license clean/do not crash [x]
Go on as many dates as possible and close [closed]
Improve my guitar playing [ ]
Have a balanced lifestyle [x]

Can't say I smashed 4 sessions a week at the gym but I am in much better shape than I was 12 months ago. I would say my guitar playing is much the same, technique slightly better, repertoire crumbled into nothingness. Happy with the rest of the goals though!

I am set up extremely well for 2016 with a great grind location/setting at my parents home in a really nice part of the UK. I have a moderate but sufficient bankroll after putting some money away to save and also spending too much on non essentials #fun. After around 5 months I plan on moving to Finland for 6 months which while fun is extremely expensive. However, she is too pretty to not go.

My target for next year will be to have a repeat year of $75k.

However, it is still unclear to me exactly where I should be focusing my grinding time. I feel that MTTs potentially offer me the best hourly with 2nd place being 6Max Turbos. However, MTTs bring a poor lifestyle with it. Possibly my biggest issue with ditching 6Max is that it is essentially my forte in terms of theory. By staying sharp at 6Max I know I improve my MTT game.

So I feel a clever balance is required to optimise my hourly while retaining decent lifestyle. While I may take a pay cut in the immediate term playing 6Max, I feel the constant short handed action will improve my MTT winrate. I do not know if it will offset the initial pay cut but if I feel uncomfortable grinding 6Max I know I will not be grinding MTTs to the best of my ability because I feel the skills are interchangeable.

Therefore I feel a good approach will be utilise my versatility by being open to grinding different formats on different days but also be willing to have a focus on a certain format if it happens to present it'self as the most attractive option.

Last year I played 4k SNGs, 2.5k MTTs and 125k hands of cash. I beleive I probably spent 40% of last year studying. This year I would like to double my playing volume hours wise so will aim for something like this as my goals:

• 10k MTTs
• 4k SNGs
• 250k hands Cash
• average 5 days a week grinding minimum

These targets might of course change depending on how profitable I find SNGs and MTTs but I think my goals are clear and focused.

SMART goals are important so here we go:

S: Specific Volume of tournaments and Cash hands to be aimed for.

M: Success will be measured on how close I come to full fulling these volume requirements.

A: The volume is attainable with good time management and sensible prioritisation. I have a sufficiently good set up, to achieve these goals assuming a smooth transition to working in Finland half way through the year. That will be important and vital to my success.

R: Goals are realistic as some MTT players play over 20k MTTs a year. Playing 10k is a very reasonable goal.

T: Ending 31st December 2016.


My overall strategy will be to grind more volume and study less, relative to last year. I will also be planning my grinds better. I will not go crazy with this but I will have weekly goals. I will try and put one day aside to grind cash. This is for similar reasons to why I will continue with SNGs. While I am not as competent with Cash as I am other formats I will be trying to keep my eye in, while at the same time hope to win a little at the tables and keep my knowledge of theory high. I envisage a typical week to look something like this:

Monday: MTTs (50 or 70)
Tuesday: Cash 5k hands.
Wednesday: SNGs (75)
Thursday: MTTs (50 or 70)
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Potential Day off or MTTs (50 or 70)
Sunday: MTTs (50 or 70)

50 or 70 MTTs a day depending on whether I work 5 or 6 days in a week. 5k Cash hands in one day is hard but I am told it is possible. Lets face it, even if I manage only 2.5k hands/day for 1 day a week that is still 125k hands a year which I would still be relatively happy with.

I am aware this has turned into a TL;DR but if nothing else I think this signifies my intent concerning the year ahead Right now I feel incredibly well prepared. As of now, I currently have 9 poker platforms with which I can potentially play on. I will be selecting well and focusing hard on multi plat-forming which is a significant weakness of mine.

Alright, I can't think of much else right now. In terms of life outside of poker I'd love to get the old body fat down to 10% and hit some double bodyweight lifts as I am getting so close now. Possibly my biggest motivation to put in 100% effort this year is simply that I feel like I am one of the luckiest people on the planet right now. I am healthy and have my family, friends and an amazing girlfriend around me and in my spare time I have so much fun. Poker has given my the lifestyle of my dreams so I am very grateful to it for that. I will do whatever it takes to retain my current lifestyle. This is a very selfish attitude, I know.

If someone asked me right now, "could you work harder?", the answer would be "Yes". So I will. I will full-fill my potential.

What a massive ramble this has been...

Right! Non-poker themes of this thread are once again Ducks and Zooey Deschanel with a smattering of blues guitar thrown in.

OK - we have all done very well to make it this far so it is high time I delivered some Threadsavers! Hope these are agreeable!

Thank you for reading and stay tuned!!

Pete

firsttt in
gl bro, will be following, should be good!

Week 1+2:

Saturday: SNGs
Sunday: MTTs!

Monday: prepare and pack for Bahamas!
Tuesday 5th: LEAVE FOR LAPT!!!!!

Return on on the 11th to continue the grind.

Snapsubbbbb

Best of luck, man! Will read op later bc tired

subd. victory loves preparation. feels liks 6fiq MTT scoop is coming. gl!

OH YEAHHHHHH

tyty¬

YES! Thanks mate!!

ITT there will also be making an effort to post at least 5 hands from every day of cash I play (usually the biggest pots that go post flop). Please assume every hand I post is asking for opinions from you guys so please feel free to make comments, I'd appreciate it thanks!

I will also try and post regular results to keep me in check! (Possibly Weekly)

I will be studying Finnish every week too and I would like to use this thread as a log to record how often I am doing this. Aiming for a few times a week.

Anyway, I am ready to start tomorrow! Really ready! I am currently just looking over a few promotions like this cash thing to see if I need to deviate at all from my planned grind. Will update!

Subbed let's do it

QUACK

gl san

Damn that last non-duck pic looks scary as hell.

subbed for big year. gooooo

GL. Subbed.

GL for 2016!

GL!

yehhhhhh

Thin ice.

Yes! MENNÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

ty!

ty!

ty!

How old are you? Solid goals (pun unintended) I have similar mtt goals insta subbed. Also awaiting pics of pretty Finnish gf

Subbed !!! Good luck man with all of your goals.

im 27 thanks bro! good luck with yours too! hehe im sure there will be a pic at some point

thanks mate

So there is a Stars strike today, so my volume on stars will be, um low.

Will do my bit on other sites!!

Read OP now GL budddd, we gon' get em!

saw the stars strike only just now (thought NVG thread was from last strike) so don't think i'll participate but feeling kinda meh playing stars still

thanks!

Yeh, with the games I played today I felt that me not striking wouldn't be too bad as I was not playing and std SNE grind games.

So overall today went smoothly, put in OK volume all things considered. Managed to create an alias on HEM2 which is nice.

Played some cash today nevertheless and had these 2 weird hands:

I feel that villain should be donkning rvr very infrequently in theory. Doesn't top them though.... and now I don't know what to do -

PokerStars Zoom Hand #146334878303: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2016/01/02 16:56:09 WET [2016/01/02 11:56:09 ET]
Table 'Hydra' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: ivano555 ($35.98 in chips)
Seat 2: OPAL2004 ($33.56 in chips)
Seat 3: Hemmelig007 ($25.06 in chips)
Seat 4: Chimpeeeeeee ($92.90 in chips)
Seat 5: Solidthought ($31.89 in chips)
Seat 6: serzhinho ($25.10 in chips)
OPAL2004: posts small blind $0.10
Hemmelig007: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Solidthought [As Ad]
Chimpeeeeeee: raises $0.36 to $0.61
Solidthought: calls $0.61
serzhinho: folds
ivano555: folds
OPAL2004: folds
Hemmelig007: folds
*** FLOP *** [8h 7d 8c]
Chimpeeeeeee: bets $0.99
Solidthought: raises $2.81 to $3.80
Chimpeeeeeee: calls $2.81
*** TURN *** [8h 7d 8c] [Th]
Chimpeeeeeee: checks
Solidthought: bets $6.65
Chimpeeeeeee: calls $6.65
*** RIVER *** [8h 7d 8c Th] [5c]
Chimpeeeeeee: bets $15.75
Solidthought: calls $15.75
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Chimpeeeeeee: shows [Ts Tc] (a full house, Tens full of Eights)
Solidthought: mucks hand
Chimpeeeeeee collected $51.97 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $53.97 | Rake $2
Board [8h 7d 8c Th 5c]
Seat 1: ivano555 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: OPAL2004 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: Hemmelig007 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Chimpeeeeeee showed [Ts Tc] and won ($51.97) with a full house, Tens full of Eights
Seat 5: Solidthought mucked [As Ad]
Seat 6: serzhinho folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Same dilemma here: there are very few hands which should be donking rvr!

HELP

PokerStars Zoom Hand #146337451274: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2016/01/02 17:40:29 WET [2016/01/02 12:40:29 ET]
Table 'Hydra' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Solidthought ($37.76 in chips)
Seat 2: andrej_@7995 ($17.67 in chips)
Seat 3: ayhshhh ($116.67 in chips)
Seat 4: maximus11478 ($32.60 in chips)
Seat 5: diogen13 ($29.69 in chips)
Seat 6: TovyKa4 ($32.92 in chips)
andrej_@7995: posts small blind $0.10
ayhshhh: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Solidthought [9h 8c]
maximus11478: folds
diogen13: folds
TovyKa4: folds
Solidthought: raises $0.37 to $0.62
andrej_@7995: calls $0.52
ayhshhh: folds
*** FLOP *** [4c 3c 5s]
andrej_@7995: checks
Solidthought: bets $1.07
andrej_@7995: calls $1.07
*** TURN *** [4c 3c 5s] [9d]
andrej_@7995: checks
Solidthought: bets $2.63
andrej_@7995: calls $2.63
*** RIVER *** [4c 3c 5s 9d] [Ks]
andrej_@7995: bets $4.25
Solidthought: calls $4.25
*** SHOW DOWN ***
andrej_@7995: shows [Kc 5c] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
Solidthought: mucks hand
andrej_@7995 collected $16.61 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $17.39 | Rake $0.78
Board [4c 3c 5s 9d Ks]
Seat 1: Solidthought (button) mucked [9h 8c]
Seat 2: andrej_@7995 (small blind) showed [Kc 5c] and won ($16.61) with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 3: ayhshhh (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: maximus11478 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: diogen13 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: TovyKa4 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Played 36 SNGs today and 1k hands of cash. Lost around 200$

First hand- flatting utg+1 vs utg is gonna be very rare in gto imo. At 25nl with rake considerations, I would just do without a flatting range and 3bet/fold there (otherwise you can literally only flat JTs+, ATs+ TT+ plus some other hands which are mixed flat/fold- and with rake, you prob have to fold even more). Maybe flat if there are fish in the SB or BB.

As played he has more trips than you do on the flop, but he doesn't have many either, so raise looks good, but I would check turn. You don't want to get check raised, and if he floated flop with Axs backdoor fd you are in good shape and don't want to fold those out. So I would rather bet KK than AA. Your bluff raising range on flop improves a lot on the turn, and your AA is more of a bluffcatcher/thin value when looking at your entire range. If people aren't tricky sure you can bet/fold turn (that play is so 2012 tho). As played otr it's whatever, but I would fold given he x/c twice on that runout having raised utg (I don't see him having any air).

2nd hand his flat preflop is bad especially with SB only being 10 cents. Flop bluff looks good with a club, and turn is a good bet imo, but I would check with T9 (less vulnerable, and gets similar value). River again is w/e. It really does look like he x/c twice with Kxcc, but I would call as well.

GL Pete !

Sent from my Nexus 5 using 2+2 Forums

amazing response! Thanks Watergun! intersting what you said about preflop with the AA hand. i will re read this later thanks a lot!

cheers Pedjak!

OTG today VAMOOOOOOOOOOO

In because you're neither a Southerner or Northerner. And I appreciate people who roll like that.

GLGL!